“Don’t be angry,” she whispered while I continued to stare Mom down.

With everything else that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, finding out that something I had suspected all along was true was the last thing I was going to get upset about. The truth had been just outside my subconscious, but I’d refused to acknowledge it, allowing Mom and Nova to have their shared secret.

I had too much other shit swirling around in my head to even let it spoil how happy I was now that Nova was mine again. “I need a priest,” I told her instead.

Her brows pulled together, and her chin actually began to tremble. “Why?”

“I told you last night, Mom. I’m getting married.” Nova squeaked at my answer, her arms tightening around me. “Priest. Minister. Judge. I don’t care at this point. Just get someone here before the sun goes down.”

“Oh, um, sure.” She licked her lips nervously and took a step in my direction. “About what you heard. I really didn’t—”

“Mom, let’s not, okay?” I stroked my hands down Nova’s back, glorying in the feel of her against me. Not twenty-four hours before, I’d been miserable, my heart not even seeming to beat. It had been as if I were a walking corpse, cold, alone, just waiting for death so I could end the pain constantly swirling around inside me. But now, I saw the world through clearer eyes, and it was all thanks to the two women I loved most. “You obviously thought I didn’t need to know, and I have to agree. If I’d been aware of what was going on at the time, I would have put a stop to it.”

Nova’s nails scratched over the back of my neck, and I had to swallow a groan from how good her touch felt. Shifting her so she could feel how much I was enjoying what she was doing, I tried to concentrate on my mother. “But considering that my wife-to-be would be lost to me forever if that had happened, I’m thankful. Please, don’t ever worry about me hating you. There is nothing that will ever change how much I love you.”

“L’venok,” she whispered, her voice cracking on a strangled sob.

“We’ll talk later,” I promised. “After the honeymoon, yeah?”

A few tears spilled down her cheeks, but she gave me a bright smile and nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, moy syn.”

“I’m sure Guzman can get a priest here by tonight,” Cali said with a wink, reminding me there were others in the room.

“Probably,” Nova muttered grumpily, pulling back to look at her friend. “But I don’t remember being proposed to, so I don’t know who Ryan plans on marrying.”

I slapped a hand against her perfect ass. “Do not push me right now, my heart.”

“Maybe I want to push,” she sassed, those green eyes full of bedevilment. “I told you I won’t marry you without the world’s most romantic proposal.”

My entire body turned to stone as my brain focused on four words. I won’t marry you.